Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-30577166-20161221080936/@comment-32358261-20171214225328

Wow everyone is going on about how much better protean is compared to ash. Can I just say that at the moment, ASH is actually more viable than protean right now.

Now I bet loads of users are gonna start arguing so hear me out. Ash Greninja just packs more punch and is faster. In return it doesn’t have the great ability protean.

Protean greninja is very versatile and works in any situation. It has so many move options it suffers from move slot syndrome. This means there are so many moves to run you don’t really know which one is best.

As of right now, smogons sm ou viability ranking puts ash at A+ and Protean at A.

http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sm-ou-viability-ranking-thread.3590726/

Anyway Your moveset is pretty good but that moveset might work better on a protean greninja

This is my personal set for my ash greninja.

Timid, Max ev Sp atk and Speed. 4ev sp def

Waterium Z

Hydro Pump, Water Shuriken, Ice beam, Dark pulse

Pretty standard set. Usually what I would do is use Z Hydropump from regular greninja to nuke the opponent. This allows me to activate Battle bond nice and early and from there let it snowball and destroy the team into oblivion.

If the opponent resists water, I would use ice beam or dark pulse depending on the type. Super effective hits are prioritised. If the Pokémon resists all moves, I would switch. Since most people expect Protean, there is an element of surprise.

Hydro pump just lets me dish out tons of damage, more so when combined with a z crystal. Not always the most reliable however.

Water Shuriken has priority, power boosted from 15 to 20 every hit and always hits 3 times. That is 60 base power. Factor in STAB and it’s essentially a 90bp priority move that passes through sturdy.

Dark pulse is secondary stab. Nothing is immune to dark so it’s a very good offensive type. Flinch chance is also nice.

Ice beam for coverage. Mainly for grass pokemon.

The thing is, people always doubt the power of ash greninja since protean is far more common and versatile. Use that to your advantage.